In late 2016, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Canada, Catherine McKenna, announced the government’s intention to introduce a Clean Fuel Standard (CFS). Since then, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) has been engaged with the government through the stakeholder consultation process.

The goal of the proposed standard is to achieve a 30 megatonnes of annual reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. At the end of February, the government distributed a focused discussion paper to support their work on establishing the scope and key attributes of the regulation. That discussion paper can be found at: http://www.ec.gc.ca/lcpe-cepa/default.asp?lang=En&n=D7C913BB-1.

There are both competitiveness issues relating to the potential costs of this regulation, and potential technical barriers to its implementation. There is also an issue on the interplay of this proposal with several other GHG and air quality regulations which are in various stages of development. It not clear how this regulation will interrelate to other GHG regulations, provincial cap and trade requirements and the establishment of the national carbon price.

As it stands right now, CIAC is engaged with other industrial sectors on a position seeking an outright exemption for industrial uses from the CFS proposal.

The government has a robust consultation plan, and they expect to have a draft regulation in place mid-2018, with a final regulation expected for mid-2019.